


Eventually

by ingridmatthews



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, Humor, Slice of Life, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 23:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ingridmatthews/pseuds/ingridmatthews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic Likes: I adore strong, capable women, and them being able to stand toe-to-toe or side-by-side with their men. Gen/Friendship fics are fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eventually

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Evil_Little_Dog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/gifts).



~*~

"American Chinese food is dumbed-down Chinese food. Blander, thicker, sweeter ..." Frohike spoke around a mouthful of beef and broccoli. "It's adapted from the real stuff."

Langley frowned at him, stabbing a dumpling with obvious annoyance. "Thanks Wikipedia." He chewed it sloppily as Frohike glared, leaving Byers to glance between them, nervously. "That's where he got that speech from," Langley protested as Byers radiated quiet disapproval. "Look it up."

Byers looked away from them, turning his attention to two slightly bloodied, utterly wiped figures bent over their oyster boxes. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?" Byers' tone was solicitous, as always. "I can arrange whatever you need."

Scully barely noticed, she was just _that_ exhausted. "We're fine." She poked listlessly at her kung po chicken, her normally perfect hair stringy with sweat, pale cheeks tinged with dirt.

Mulder's gimlet eye gazed at her from beneath the bloody, improvised bandage circling his forehead. Car chases after three suspicious lights in the sky ending a spectacular wreck were one thing, her suddenly downplaying of _his_ injuries was distinctly another. "We are?"

"We are," she replied with stiff determination, the kind that showed off the perfect line of her jaw in a stunning display of anger. "Unless you want me to call 911. For you."

"Could you do that from the corner?" Frohike asked plaintively. "We're trying to keep this address secure."

"Things have been hell since those guys from alt.tv.stargate outed me," Langley explained sheepishly. "I kinda trolled them for a little too long."

"They didn't exactly out him, but the claimed proxy decoding left them with an IP address that was too close for comfort. Every number was off by even integers and we thought it best to take more precautions with this location," Byers said, in a matter-of-fact tone that almost made his words sound reasonable.

Almost.

"Who knew they had such a hard-on for Teal'c's baldness? That's so stupid," Langley scoffed. He looked around for agreement. "Right?"

Scully's mouth turned down even further, as impossible as it seemed, Mulder noticed. "Are there beers in that 'fridge?" she asked, with a cheek twitch. Frohike, more sensitive than his compatriots, quickly got up and retrieved one for her. 

She opened it with a thumb pop and swallowed half in a single gulp.

Mulder couldn't help but be impressed. Even if it was a twist-off cap. "Can I have some?"

"No," Scully snapped. "You have a head injury."

She drained the bottle with a swig and motioned for another, which Frohike gladly got her. It was gone in roughly the same amount of time. By the third, her jaw had loosened to the point of 'almost normal'. By the fourth, she was grinning, droopily perhaps, but it was close enough. 

Mulder stared at her with deep resentment. "Frohike, get me a beer."

"Frohike, if you get him a beer, I'll send you to China to get some real Chinese food. Courtesy of my foot," Scully threatened, with misleading softness and Frohike sat back down without a second's hesitation.

Mulder regarded her coolly, as coolly as he could at any rate, considering his head was wrapped in one of Langley's purple bandanas. "I think you're being difficult and unfair on purpose, Scully."

He regretted the words about three seconds after they came out of his mouth. "You think I'm being difficult and unfair? Because there is nothing inherently _unfair_ about you ditching me, leaving me in the dark about the real case you're chasing, a chase which literally nearly _killed_ us both and I _still_ don't know what the hell is really going on? Are you saying there's nothing _difficult_ about dealing with that? Really? " 

Breathing heard, she glowered furiously at him. Her blue eyes were star bright with the kind of righteous indignation that only Scully -- _his_ Scully -- could muster and Mulder couldn't help but be charmed, grinning in such a way that only made her angrier and he made a note to duck in case the beer bottle came flying at him. 

The Lone Gunmen, on the other hand, were a mixture of awed, terrified and in Frohike's case, obviously turned on. 

"Go take a shower, Frohike," Mulder ordered and Frohike rose shakily, to presumably do as he was told as the other two stared at their food as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Mulder turned back to his partner. "I'm sorry, Scully. But I've discovered something important tonight, I swear."

"Right," she replied, attacking her food with drunken gusto. She looked up at him defiantly, a drip of grease on her chin and a speck of rice on her perfect mouth that Mulder, heaven help him, would have loved to nibble off her lip. "What was that, dare I ask?"

"You can pop off a bottle cap with one finger. I mean, damn, FBI woman. Those are some serious skills." 

He looked at her appealingly. She huffed and rolled her eyes. Things, suddenly, were normal and well between them. As they always would be ... eventually.

Not that Langley and Byers noticed. "Have you ever watched Stargate?" Langley asked in a clumsy attempt at levity. "Because if you haven't, I have all the seasons on tape. Maybe I could put some in? I think you'd like it ... even the bald guy."

He was smart enough to wait until Scully nodded. Which she, eventually, did.


End file.
